Chapter 5

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Chapter 5: The Moves of Argument in Video

  • What does this type of digital argument look like in practice?
  • What constitutes a claim, evidence, warrant, and attention to rebuttal in this form of argument?


Craft Elements in Video

  • Camera angle
  • Cuts/transitions
  • Focus (near, mid, far)
  • Framing
  • Gaze
  • Establishing shot
  • Pan and zoom
  • Voice-over
  • Interview
  • Archivan footage
  • Resconstruction/reenactment
  • Montage



Other alternatives for having students create argumentative videos include:

  • Invite students to analyze existing arguments using a video annotation tool such as Vialogues, Voicethread or Ponder to describe what they have created and/or ask questions of their viewers.
  • Similarly, once students create their own videos, have them create a “director’s cut” using screencasting tools such as Jing, Screencast-O-Matic, or Screencastify, documenting the choices that they have made.
  • Alternatively, if the video is designed to be an interactive, quiz-like experience, students could use a tool such as PlayPositto ask their viewers a variety of questions in true/false, multiple choice, or short answer format.

Resources from the chapter


For more resources on teaching digital writing, please check out Troy's blog "Digital Writing, Digital Teaching" and resources on his wiki page. Additionally, check out the companion wiki for the books The Digital Writing Workshop and Crafting Digital Writing. For resources on Connected Reading, check out the companion wiki for the book Connected Reading: Teaching Adolescent Readers in a Digital World.